10 April

Listening to the latest ATP, and in full agreement with Marco Arment that the Apple Watch would be a better product if it simply didn’t have “apps” — no launcher, just notifications and glances (some of the latter being provided by third-party iPhone apps). Not just because of initial performance issues with WatchKit, but because hunting for an app within that home screen looks to be the nadir of the device’s UX, only compounded by the fact that the display will switch back to the watch face as soon as you drop your wrist.

But even Apple would have trouble selling a $400 device (let alone $1,000 or $10,000) that only displays notifications and glances. It has to have “apps,” even if they turn out to be entirely useless.

Basically all my gripes with the Watch come from Apple’s need to justify its price range — i.e. they stem from Jony Ive’s nouveau-riche urge to create a gold watch. (Yes, I’m bitter because all I’ve wanted for years is a simple, well-designed first-party Pebble - a device that would be honest about what it is.)

16 April

I never watch music videos so I hadn’t thought about the potential for VR: bite-sized experiences that immerse you in the artist’s universe while remaining short enough not to make you sick (and not to completely bankrupt the production company). An actual video game would be hell to design, because you’d have to think very hard about how the music will sync up with the player’s actions, but it totally works if the interactivity is limited to moving your head.

26 April

27 April

Just figured out that what people call the Watch’s “air gap” must be the glass needing to be thicker to withstand Force Touch. (I knew it had to be the glass’s thickness, but blanked on the reason why.)